Dell reveals new servers and storage for SMBs

Dell rounded out a busy year so far with the launch of new servers and storage equipment tailored towards the needs of the small to medium sized businesses.

"Dell's 11G range has been targetting all sized businesses, but until now was not really aimed at the SME sector," said Hugh Jenkins, product business manager, EMEA. "These new announcements are the third wave of announcements we have made since March this year, and a large component of it has been the introduction from the tenth to the eleventh generation of server platforms."

Jenkins feels that Dell's refreshed lineup will appeal both to the smaller to medium players, such as public sector (schools), local offices (of large corporates), or even to be used in data centres running marginal or specific 'edge of network applications such as firewalls, file servers etc.

"There has been four new additions to Dell's PowerEdge server range," explained Jenkins. "The entry level server platform, the PowerEdge T110, is the ideal first server for small organisations. It has a small form factor (18 inch tower chassis), and is very quiet. It is ideal for someone moving to a server technology for the first time, as it has a single socket, Intel Zeon 3400 processors, upto 1TB SATA drive, four DIMM slots, four PCI slots. It will begin shipping from 30 September, and pricing starts from £509 ($US842), which includes a three year support contract as well.

"The next machine is the PowerEdge R210, which has a rack mounted form factor, 1U high (low profile), low depth chassis (15.5 inches), and is extremely compact for squeezing into small spaces," said Jenkins. "It is suited for those organisations looking for their first rack server, or those looking for a server to run specific network edge type applications such firewall etc."

Jenkins said it has a much lower wattage power supply (250 watts). "This is the most power efficient server yet from Dell, according to our tests," said Jenkins. "According to our tests it is 88 percent more efficent than its predecessors. It has support for couple of hard discs (SATA, SAS, or even SSDs), and contains one high speed expansion slot (PCI Express, and four DIMM slots. There is no word on pricing yet but will commerce shipping on 30 September.

"The next server is top of the range, the T310, a single socket that is tower very appropriate for the growing business that needs more power and expansion capabilities and support for RAID options, as well as redundant power, which are optional items on this product," said Jenkins. It begin shipping on 15 September but there is no pricing yet."

Customers can also optionally add Dell Lifecycle Controller - which configures the server from bare boot by automating the operating system installation of local and remote servers for small businesses and large enterprises alike. "Essentially it makes the configuration experience much simplier and easier for customers," said Jenkins.

"The last server product we are introducing is the R510," he said. "It is a much more mid range targetted server platform. It is rack mounted, 2U form factor, with support for very large internal storage capacity, as it supports up to eight 3.5inch drives. For example, it can hold eight x 1TB SATA drives."

"It is targeting applications where customers want considerable internal storage, most notably with Microsoft Exchange," said Jenkins. "It also support Dell Lifecycle Controller. Shipment commences on 16 October, and pricing will be made available nearer the date."

Jenkins also took the oppprtunity to talk about a new storage product, the PowerVault NX300, which he called an entry level network attached NAS device. "This is designed very much to be a shrink-wrapped entry-level file server package, as it comes with everything a customer will need to deploy and manage a file server. It is structured on standard 1U rack server, and is preconfigured with MS Windows storage service 2008. Storage up to 4TB of information on that entry level NAS. It will ship on 12 October, starts from £1,970.

He also mentioned that Dell is introducing a new range of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), 28 in total, catering for both small businesses through to large enterprise players.

Support has also been added for Hyper V.

"Those are the highlights, it really rounds out a busy year for us," said Jenkins. "We think this one does really help meet small to medium enterprises needs. It offers good choices, plus others that can optioned up to more sophisticated platforms," he said.

The screen was particularly good. It is bright and visible from most angles, however heat is an issue, particularly around the Windows button on the front, and on the back where the battery housing is located.

My first impression after unboxing the Q702 is that it is a nice looking unit. Styling is somewhat minimalist but very effective. The tablet part, once detached, has a nice weight, and no buttons or switches are located in awkward or intrusive positions.

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